Q Driving by Valley Fair every day, twice a day, I can tell you one thing. Traffic is better, way better than before the ramps at Stevens Creek Boulevard opened. The mall is just as crowded as ever, but the backups on 280-880 are nowhere as bad as before. With three lanes to get onto Stevens Creek from the south and north, plus a dedicated lane to the mall from 880 south, things are much, much smoother.

Dennis Cole

Gilroy

A Now, this what I like to hear. A few motorists disagree, but we need to give this more time at least until after the holidays. In addition, some drivers are unsure what lane to use when exiting from south 880 onto Stevens Creek and then Monroe (it’s the far right lane). When they get more familiar with the new design, conditions could improve.

Q I commute every morning from 880 south to 280 south and there is usually a very long line from 880 south to 280 north at Stevens Creek. Before the new lanes onto Stevens Creek opened, I could avoid all that traffic by crossing Stevens Creek and just keep on going straight onto 280. After the new lanes were open, the traffic light has only right and left arrows. Why can I not drive straight from the left lane anymore? It would certainly save a lot of time and diminish traffic.

Alina Mihailovici

A Brandi-the-VTA-Spokesperson takes it from here:

“The movement that your reader used to do is what we call ‘lane jumping.’ Traffic counts were taken when the old interchange had the straight-lane arrow and there were so few of these movements that it didn’t warrant a straight arrow. Plus, allowing for a straight arrow for relatively few cars, or lane jumpers, would have burdened the turn movements.”

Q Any idea when the fly-over ramp from north 280 to north 880 will be done?

Mike Flannery

A Late spring.

Q Can you help? It appears that most of the lights on Wolfe Road are unable to sense traffic flows. The worst offender is the left-hand turn lane onto Central Expressway when traveling north on Wolfe. Drivers regularly go straight past the turn, make a U-turn on Wolfe and beat the folks waiting in line to make the left turn onto the expressway. There are other areas in Sunnyvale with far less traffic that have smart lights that turn green as soon as you drive up. Seems like they have forgotten this highly trafficked commute route.

Adrienne Friedman

A Wolfe has three coordinated light systems — one between Inverness and Marion, one between Iris and Maria, and one between Old San Francisco-Reed and Kifer. The city is implementing a new timing plan between Old San Francisco and Stewart.

The intersection at Wolfe and Central is timed where in the morning, the northbound left turn at Central is set to extend the green time to a maximum of 35 seconds and the same is done in the afternoon for the southbound left turn.

So, for example, travelers going north in the afternoon between 4:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. will wait a bit longer as the southbound left turn lane will stay green regardless of the presence of vehicles.

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